New Touchscreens With Buttons?!

This touchscreen technology grows clickable buttons that disappear again on command, and it can work on any device on the market.

Most of us have adjusted to life with touchscreens. They lack tactile feedback, the rubber nubs that enable thoughtless use of our television remotes, but touchscreens create dynamic virtual buttons and open up vital screen real estate. They’re worth the thumb-numbing tradeoff.

But what if we could have both? What if we could have a dynamic touchscreen with real buttons? Impossible? Not at all.

A startup called Tactus Technology has developed a thin “Tactile Layer” that sits on top of touchscreens in place of the normal surface (it’s no thicker).

Now, ready for one last mind-bending trick? The Tactile Layer can work on any sort of product you can imagine, from coffee machines to car doors.

“Honestly, all the ways to use our technology that we have not yet thought of!” writes Ciesla, with an air of earnest hyperbole. “Now that our technology is out in the public, we are excited to learn about all the creative ways our product can be applied to generate new types of user experience.”